Taxe foncière bills on the way

HOMEOWNERS can expect their taxe foncière bills through the letterbox shortly – but in most cases there should be no unpleasant surprises this year.

Town management analysts Forum pour le Gestion des Villes estimate there has been an average increase in the percentage rates applied by councils of about 1.8%, which they say is comparatively low – however, there are some big differences depending where you live.

In Lille the rate of taxe foncière is up a whopping 23.3% compared to last year, while it is also up steeply in Toulouse, at 15%, where the right-wing council is increasing both main taxes by the same amount; blaming problems inherited from the previous Socialist-led council.

Lyon sees a rise of 6.2% and there are rises of 4.9% in Marseille and of 5% in Bordeaux where the council says lower grants from central government are to blame.

However in many other towns there is no change from last year, such as Paris, Perpignan, Rennes, Nantes, Rouen, Nice and Montpellier. It has fractionally dropped in Brest (by 0.2%).

Taxe foncière is usually paid by whoever owns a building or land on January 1 of the year the bill arrives. It is split into tax sur les propriétés bâties (buildings) and sur les propriétés non-bâties (land – other than eg. gardens attached to houses – such as building plots).

Note that this year the tax on building land has been increased by 25% plus €5/m2 in a number of larger cities considered to have housing pressures, in a bid to encourage people to sell the land or build on it.

Bills for the other main property tax, taxe d’habitation will be going out next month.

For more about the local property taxes, including who has to pay them, ways of paying and what reductions and exemptions are available, our updated version of our helpguide to these taxes is available to buy at Helpguides or by calling 06 40 61 71 97.